According to the University’s 2002 USDA/APHIS report, UAB
houses 360 primates. In 2004, Alabama Voice for Animals used Alabama’s
Open Records Act to obtain documents relating to primate research
at UAB. We have learned much about the nature of primate research
at UAB from the descriptions of experimental plans and procedures.
Below are a few examples of the research being conducted on primates
at UAB:

The project titled FMR Imaging of the Eye Stabilization
Process is an extremely invasive experiment that involves
not only multiple surgeries, but also water deprivation. The animals
are subjected to a great deal of routine handling and daily confinement
to a restraint chair, both of which are highly stressful for the
primate. Also, as part of the experiment, the primate is subjected
to time in the magnetic bore of an fMRI machine.

To prepare the primate for the experiment, the Principle Investigator
first performs a series of surgeries which allow him to bolt recording
devices onto the animal’s skull. Two metal strips to which
a head restraint bar will be attached are bolted onto the primate’s
skull. Later, holes are bored into the monkey’s skull to allow
electrodes to be fed into the animal’s brain. Teflon coated
metal coils are implanted behind the primates eyes.

The experiment also calls for a rigid water restriction regime
in which the primate is denied water for 20 hours each day for 5
day blocks. During experimental procedures, the primate is confined
to a restraint chair for 3 to 5 hours. The head restraint pole embedded
in his skull is bolted to the chair to immobilize his head. Water
is given during this time as a reward for good behavior. When the
procedure is over and the primate is returned to his home cage,
water is again withheld for the next 20 hours.

At the end of the experiment, the primates are exsanguinated—bled
to death.
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In the experiment Evaluation of Brain Death on Islet Recovery
and Functionality in Primates, experimenters insert catheters
into the skull of a monkey. By inflating a small balloon within
the catheter, they are able to increase the pressure within the
head and cause a rapidly progressive brain injury which leads to
brain death. After brain death is achieved, but before the animal
is killed, the scientists open the primate’s abdomen and remove
his pancreas.

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In the experiment A New Approach to the Xenotransplantation
in Primates, genetically modified pancreatic cells from
pigs are transplanted into the livers of primates. A large midline
incision is must be performed on the primate as part of the transplant.
Despite the highly invasive nature of this procedure, analgesics
are only given for three days following the surgery. After the transplants,
the animals are also subjected to liver biopsies and lymph node
biopsies aswell.

From the necropsy reports, we have learned a great deal about the
suffering of individual primates at UAB:

• According to this monkey’s necropsy report, “he
was a self mutilator with an extended period of lesion healing and
re-injury. Self injurious behavior is a serious indication of behavioral
disturbance and stress often exhibited by singly housed primates.
Isolation is extremely distressful for primates.

• ID # RQ2820: Another monkey, a 3 year old rhesus macaque
suffered from chronic colitis. The overall poor condition of his
Gastro-Intestinal tract mirrors the “necropsies of several
of these undersized young macaques with multiple bouts of diarrhea,
weight loss and general failure to thrive.” Undersized primates
with chronic colitis are clearly very unhealthy and this condition
sounds as if it is rather common.

• A 2 year old female macaque, primate ID# CP7B, was found
to be “in poor health.” The veterinarian found that
she was “both too small and too thin.” Due to chronic
inflammation of the Gastro Intestinal tract, she was treated for
inflammatory bowel disease, although the condition persisted until
her death.

• Primate ID#APIK was infected with a Simian (monkey)- Human
Immunodeficiency Virus, or SHIV. He was reported to be “emaciated.”
The chronic diarrhea and weight loss experienced by this monkey
“are among the expected outcomes of this experimental manipulation.”

• Primate ID# CP6J died after surgery, while she was recovering
from anesthesia. According to her necropsy report, “she was
breathing unassisted post anesthesia. She started coughing blood
on extubation.”

• One primate, ID# 98P162, was infected with SIV, a monkey
form of HIV. In his necropsy report, it is noted that he was lame
in left leg with a swollen ankle. The resulting disuse of his limb
led to arthritis and atrophy of the muscle and bone.